Corporeal Bonds
The Daughter-Mother Relationship in Twentieth-Century Italian Women's Writing
Published on 11. June 2012
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-4426-4425-0 (ISBN)
Description
The mother-daughter relationship is a popular theme in contemporary Italian writing but has never before been analysed in a comprehensive book-length study. In Corporeal Bonds, Patrizia Sambuco analyses novels by authors such as Elsa Morante, Francesca Sanvitale, Mariateresa Di Lascia, and Elena Ferrante, each of which is narrated from the daughter's point of view and depicts the daughter's bond with the mother.
Highlighting the recurrent images throughout these works, Sambuco traces these back to alternative forms of communication between mother and daughter, as well as to the female body. Sambuco also explores the attempts of the daughter-narrators to define a female self that is outside the constrictions of patriarchal society. Through these investigations, Corporeal Bonds identifies a strong connection between the ideas of post-Lacanian critical theorists, Italian feminist thinkers, and the stories within the novels.
Highlighting the recurrent images throughout these works, Sambuco traces these back to alternative forms of communication between mother and daughter, as well as to the female body. Sambuco also explores the attempts of the daughter-narrators to define a female self that is outside the constrictions of patriarchal society. Through these investigations, Corporeal Bonds identifies a strong connection between the ideas of post-Lacanian critical theorists, Italian feminist thinkers, and the stories within the novels.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
476 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4426-4425-0 (9781442644250)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Patrizia Sambuco
Corporeal Bonds
The Daughter-Mother Relationship in Twentieth-Century Italian Women's Writing
E-Book
09/2012
1st Edition
University of Toronto Press
€64.95
Available for download
Person
Patrizia Sambuco is the editor of Transmissions of Memory and Italian Women Writers, 1800-2000 and the author of Corporeal Bonds.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Psychoanalytic Accounts of Sexual Difference: Luce Irigaray and Italian Feminism
The Denial of the Mother
The Mother Figure and the Maternal
Irigaray: Subjectivity and the Mother-Daughter Corporeal Bond
From Mothers to Daughters: The Italian Scene
Diotima and Luisa Muraro
Adriana Cavarero
2 Elsa Morante's Menzogna e sortilegio: The Incorporeal Bond
Menzogna e sortilegio and the Critics
Motherhood and the Mother-Daughter Relationship: Cesira and Anna
Maternal Love: Rosaria and Alessandra
Elisa
3 Francesca Sanvitale's Madre e figlia: Bodies of Pain and Imagination
Body as Object of Desire
The Male Hero
Medical Establishment: The Attack on the Body
Critique and Re-imagining
Writing, Imagination, and Language
Narrator, Character, and Author in Search of Identity
4 Mariateresa Di Lascia's Passaggio in ombra: The Maternal as Expression of Desire and Corporeality
Desire
Chiara
The Daughter within the Heterosexual Economy
Body and Knowledge
5 Elena Ferrante's L'amore molesto: The Renegotiation of the Mother's Body
Delia: The Love and Hatred of a Selfless Subject
Reconstructing the Past
The Language of Dresses
6 Elena Stancanelli's Benzina: The Surreal Mother-Daughter Relationship and New Possibilities
Elena Stancanelli and the Literary Scene, 1995-2000
Benzina 154
Mother and Daughter: Different Bodies, Different Personalities
A Relationship of Fusion and Independence
Oppressed Bodies in the Family Home
Looking, and Looking at Each Other
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction
1 Psychoanalytic Accounts of Sexual Difference: Luce Irigaray and Italian Feminism
The Denial of the Mother
The Mother Figure and the Maternal
Irigaray: Subjectivity and the Mother-Daughter Corporeal Bond
From Mothers to Daughters: The Italian Scene
Diotima and Luisa Muraro
Adriana Cavarero
2 Elsa Morante's Menzogna e sortilegio: The Incorporeal Bond
Menzogna e sortilegio and the Critics
Motherhood and the Mother-Daughter Relationship: Cesira and Anna
Maternal Love: Rosaria and Alessandra
Elisa
3 Francesca Sanvitale's Madre e figlia: Bodies of Pain and Imagination
Body as Object of Desire
The Male Hero
Medical Establishment: The Attack on the Body
Critique and Re-imagining
Writing, Imagination, and Language
Narrator, Character, and Author in Search of Identity
4 Mariateresa Di Lascia's Passaggio in ombra: The Maternal as Expression of Desire and Corporeality
Desire
Chiara
The Daughter within the Heterosexual Economy
Body and Knowledge
5 Elena Ferrante's L'amore molesto: The Renegotiation of the Mother's Body
Delia: The Love and Hatred of a Selfless Subject
Reconstructing the Past
The Language of Dresses
6 Elena Stancanelli's Benzina: The Surreal Mother-Daughter Relationship and New Possibilities
Elena Stancanelli and the Literary Scene, 1995-2000
Benzina 154
Mother and Daughter: Different Bodies, Different Personalities
A Relationship of Fusion and Independence
Oppressed Bodies in the Family Home
Looking, and Looking at Each Other
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index